A LECTURE

ON

FREE TRADE,

IN gONNEX|ON _V1TH

THECORNLAWS;

DELIVERED AT TIlE

W IIITE CONDUIT HOUSE, ON JANUARY 31, 184.3.

BY

THOMAS HODGSKIN.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY G. J. PALMER, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

1843.

A LECTURE,

TaR present meeting has, by my recommendation, been made com-pletely open and free, and I appeal to you, by carrying it to its close withptood temper and perfect order, to honour the bill I have ventured, infull confidence, to draw on the good sense of the people. If you redeemmy pledge, those restrictions on public meetings which have of late beenborrowed from the fears of Exeter Hall, and which, in the pursuit offreedom, are as little defensible in my estimation as restrictions on trade,will be hereafter discarded, and we shall much extend the basis of thepopular union and increase the popular power.

The purpose for which we meet is that I may advocate the total andimmediate repeal of the Corn Laws, and call on you to exert yourselves toput an end to them for ever. I make no pretensions to throw any newlight on this much-discussed question, but I venture to plead for repealfrom a sincere desire to promote it. Do not expect to be amused. Nothingless is involved in this great question than the happiness of the entirecommunity--it even concerns the welfare of the whole human species,and I should hold myself as culpable as I deem those who lightly andunthinkingly make and maintain such laws, were I to speak of themexcept in the most serious manner. Those who can jest with such atheme may be witty beyond description, but of them I ,my with the poet,

'"There is no blinder bigot, I maintain it still,Than he who must have pleasura come what wilL"

These are times, and this is a theme, which demand the most solemnearnestness ; in that state of mind I am about to speak of it, and in thatstate of mind I hope you are prepared to accompany me. Allow me toadd, that the occasion and the subject both justify strong language, andthose who complain of the impassioned words of the Anti-Corn Lawadvocates should remember that they plead for the millions against whatthey conscientiously regard as an unwarrantable infrac_.ion of freedom andjustice.

As the labouring classes have unfortunately stood aloof from ouragitation, though they are now I believe coming forward and makingcommon caule with us, as it has been asserted that to abolish the Corn

4Laws would injure them, and as ! do not purpose on the present occasionto condder how the abolition would affect them, I must begin by saying ithat if I had the shadow of a shade of a suspicion that it would lower

wage_, diminish employment, delay the progress of freedom, or retard for i

one hour the emancipation of the ma_se_ I should beliemy whole lifeifI undertook its advocacy. _:I take up the question as it affectsthe whole community, it being

infinitely degraded when it is treated as a dispute between tile opulente_ or a mere struggle between landlords and master manufaeturer_,with which other men have no concern. To treat it too as a question ofpounds, shillings, and pence, pretending to decide it by the cost of growing,and the prices of wheat here and abroad, or the n_mber of acres, more orless, of which it may extend or impede the cultivation, is to admit thepossibility of the law being justifiable under some circumstances, which Ideny--in to forsake the vantage ground of principle and appeal tominute factswhich cannot poMibly be ascertainedwith accuracy--whiclt ',vary with every discovery in art, and every relative change in the densityof population in diiferent countrie.% and whmh lie far beyond the cogni-zance of the great bedy of the people deeply interested in the decision.

The same line of Rrgument applies to what is continually said of theconduct of other governments, of their tariffs and their disposition to meetor thwart our free trade legislation. All their conduct lies beyond ourcontroul, and we must be contented with commandi_g justice at home.within the sphere of our own power°_trusting the issue to P_tovn_Escs.

Corn Law Repeal is a question of morals and general legi,lation.not limited to that object, food, to which it is nominally confined.Such laws it is erroneously supposed affect only corn, as gamelaws are supposed to affect only game. But all laws are an ex-

premion of the will of the whole society, they are carried into effect bythe general power, and they have, as we well know, a permanent influenceover the morality and well being of all. Of society, the labourers form thelargest portion _ the protection of peaceful industry is the great object of alllaws, and if any man can show that the Corn Laws add to the rewards of thelabourers and elevate their character, he shall have me for hm follower.

Their present deplorable condition forbids any such proof, and warrantsthe belief that the road to their permanent iml,rovement lies through therepeal of all restrictions on industry, including all the landlords' taxeson food.

That the employers of labourers would be benefited by the repeal isuniversally admitted. Among them are ,kilful and painstaking manu-facture_, long thou_hted merchants, and enterprizing inventors--men whoare ever planning some new combinations to enrich themselves. I admit,but which in the end confer benefit on the public. II they should reapadvantage from the abolition as well as the labourers, that would bea strongrecoramendation of the measure ; but they are comparatively so few innumber, that it is no justification of a law merely to _ty that it adds to thewealth and power of capitalists.

Our farmers are l_ainstaking, frugal, frank, hm_est, and industrious _ antiif, withal, they do not possess the same kind of knowledge as towns-people, they knnw their own business tolerably well, and by providingsubsistence for society to the extellt of their means, do their duty. Theynever were persona of large fortunes or extravagant habits, an[l are at pre.lent impoverished to the verge of insolvency, and degraded to the brink

5

ofslavery. With their prosperity the future welfare or even subsistenceof society is closely linked ; and though the repeal of the Corn Lawsmight benefit artizans and manufacturing capitalists, if it would inflict theleast injury on the farmers, we ought to hesitate long before we demandedit. I believe, and they ] am happy to know are beginning to believe,that it would confer prosperity on them, hacrease their skill, aa_d :estore themto independence

I must beg, however, not to be understood as countenancing a vulgarerror of some arcadian Tories. The ancient poets, contrasting the peaceft_llife of an agriculturist with the savage and piratical habits of previoushunters and rovers, hfarst out into rapturous praise of all persons and thingsconnected with the steady cultivation of the soil ; and modern writers,from that ignorance of our society which is carefully inculcated at uni-versities, apply that language to our agriculturists, as compared to ourmanufacturers. This is a grievous misapplication. Our manufacturingand town population, in regularity, order_ ingenuity, and love of peace,are as much superior to any rude race of mereagrieulturists_as they existin Spain, Wallachia, and Ireland--as these are superior to the savagehunters and pirates of antiquity. Had those ancient poets lived in ourtime, their own good sense would have taught them to give at least asmuch praise to our manufacturers as to our farmers. In truth, all our 1._-Dv,_rP,IOttS classes are equally mutually and reciprocally serviceable, andonly prejudice or folly exalts the lives and occupations of one, above thelives and occupations of another.

The landlords and the clergy, supposed to be particularly interested inthis question, are so few in number and so little serviceahle to other men,contributing neither to feed, clothe, protect, nor teach them any usefulknowledge, that their interest cannot for one moment be put in competi-tion with that of the rest of the community, and I should advocate therepeal if it wouhl benefit the rest, though its certain consequence wouldbe to annihilate both those classes. But I do not believe such would beits effect. Granting that they might possibly suffer to a slight extent in_t pecuniary sense, which I doubt, in reputation, credit, honour_ public re-spect, and personal security, they would gain immeasurably.

The Corn Laws are intended, I know, to confer advantages on them_but that intention is not realized. The best meant laws may inflict, as iswell known, only misery on the whole society, including the very classesthey were intended to benefit. I shall clear the way, therefore, for a fairconsideration of the question, by reminding you of a few laws intended topromote class interests or subserve the interests of some individuals, whichexperience has demonstrated to have had contrary effects, and which, inour time, have been abolished with unspeakable advantage.

You are well aware that in 18°8 the Test and Corporation Acts wereabolished after a long struggle. They were intended to maintain theChurch in peace, security, and strength ; they rai_l against her implacableanimosity, while they inflicted insult and vexation on Dissenters ; theyfostered impertinent arrogance on the one hand, and on the other discon-tent and anger. They injured the Church as well as the Dissenters. Anumerous and afltuent party strnggled to maintain them as a matter oflife and death, but twelve years' experience has convinced us. that to abo-lish them conferred an unmixed good on the community. It relieved Dis-senters, but it taught the Church modesty and self-examination, and was

6

one of the parents of that revived energy and zeal of which its friends nowloudly boast.

The Act for abolishing _he penal laws against the Catholics had pre-cisely similar effect. It induced the clergy to look less to the law andmore to their doctrines. It released the Catholics from ignominious andrankling disabilities, and extinguished in the state a source of fierce con-tention and discord. Not an individual in the empire--not even Sir Har-court Lees--was injured by the almost total and immediate abolition ofthose penal laws, and nothing but good has flowed from emancipating theCatholics.

It is also true, and pertinent to our subject, that in ] 825 a law toprohibit the exportation of wool was repealed, though some manufacturersand some statesmen resisted the repeal, and predicted that it would ruinthe woollen trade. At the same time, the duty on wool imported fromabroad was lowered from 6d.per lb. to Id., which the flock-masters clamo-rously asserted would ruin them. Since then, however, our woollen manu-factures have extended in an unprecedented manner, and the price of woolroee, and the flock-masters were rewarded beyond their expectation. Nota single soul was injured, but manufactures were extended, trade was pro-rooted, rent was increased, and the whole community was enriched.

The abolition of the East India Company's monopoly, to quote anothersimilar example, has been followed by a great increase of trade, both withIndia and China_ while not even the Company's labourers were injuredby the change. In )819, Mr. now Lord $Vallace began a series of altera-tions in our commercial code, the principle of which was to do away withprohibitions and lower restrictive duties, and one of the first of which wasto put an end to more than a thousand Acts of Parliament concerning thecustoms. Mr. Huskisson followed up that plan, though slowly, till hisdeath ; and every prohibition abolished and every duty lowered have con-tributed to increase employmeut_ to extenc_ the national resources, andarrest the mischievous consequences of excessive taxation and of the pro-hibitions and restrictions that are still suffered to remain on the statute-book. You are also, perhaps_ aware that within a few years many lawsinflicting capital punishments have been abolished, to the improvement ofthe public feelings and to no man's detriment, not even to the detrimentof the disgraced a_d dishonoured hangman. The number of offences towhich by our laws the punishment of death was attached in the beginningof this century, was nearly three hundred. By the efforts of many en-lightened men, though the most eminent members of the bar opposed them,the number had been reduced, in February 1841, to nearly thirty, whichwas subsequently lessened by a measure introduced by Lord John Russell.Now, the successive and extensive abolition of cruel penal laws, nearly threehundred capital punishments having been swc] t from our statute-book inlittle more than thirty years, has been of inestimable advantage to thewhole community. Permit me to add, with reference to a recent andlamentable occurrence, that the crime of aamssination, which appears un-happily to be increasing, is still punishable with death, that the punish-ment_unlem the amasein be insane--is 1,ever remitted, and that the in-crease of that crime is in nowise owing to the illproved humanity of thelaw.

It is manifest, from these examples, that a law, though well meant, maynot be beneficial either to a class or to the community, In fact, every

7

law is a restraint on freedom, and per _ mischievous, though this truth iscontinually loet sight of; and on those who make or enforce a law lles atevery moment the burthen of proving its utility. We should be warranted,therefore, in demanding the repeal of the Corn Laws, though nothing fur-ther could be said against them than that TRaY _ucr without their advo-cates being able to supply the least proof that they are benetlcial to thewhole society. They are examples of bad laws, the otf_pring of ignoranceand bad passions, llke the Test Act_ like the penal laws against the Catho-lics, like the laws prohibiting the exportation of wool, like the lawB forputting men to death for nearly three hundred different offences, Dwhilethe Decalogue forbids only ten, and like them may be with v_ivmaaaLbenefit immediately abolished.

Before we enter further into the subject, let me satisfy you, by a brierreference to the condition of England under the operation of these andsimilar malevolent laws, that there is at present an urgent necemity for thepublic seriously to examine this question.

Our country presents an astonishing spectacle. The law is triumphant,it is universally enforced and obeyed. There is no sedition, no rebellion,no civil war in the land. We have been subjected to no great nationalcalamities, such as sometimes devastate other countries. In our gentlevales, alpine torrents are unknown. If storms sweep over our hills, ifshipwrecks happen off our coast, and some persons have to mourn theloss of relatives and friends, they seem only disastrnus enough to keepthe public sympathy alive to calamity to which all are exposed, andexcite to good works of charity, kindne_ and love. Their effects on thenational welfare are unimportant. Pestilence and earthquakes are un-knowl_ amongst us. We have managed latterly to keep out of veryextensive foreign wars: yet all classes are in a state of suffering oralarm.

Pauperism and crime are rapidly increasing. In such agricultural dis-tricts as Sussex and Essex, the gaols, as at Lewes and Springfield, no longersuffice to hold the criminals ; and at such places as Chelmdord, the able-bodied paupers have increased 25 per cent in the year 1842_ though in1841 the number was unusually large. These are specimens of whatoccurs in the most favoured districts, to say nothing of Paisley, Stock-port, Leeds, and our other manufacturing towns involved in one greatgulph of poverty, distress, and pauperism. The workhouses and gaols, inshort, are everywhere crowded with the victims of poverty and punish-ment. The revenue is rapidly declining, particularly that branch of itwhich serves as an index to the enjoyments and comtbrts of the people ;and to increase our disasters, we are now beginning to sut_er in peace froma vexatious, unjust, and odious war-tax, the worst invention of a rapaciousand sordid faction.

Those who personally feel not the pinching necessity of the times arefilled with alarm. There is no party nor persons satisfied with things asthey are: all praiseof our gloriousconstitutionhas for ever ceased.'_From head to foot," said a Conservative Journal, (The ".Mornin9Herald), no longerago than Wednesday week, THZ BODY I'OLITICisFULLOP seas vm_szs." The Conservatives are struck aghastwith a condi-tionwhich defiestheirart,and mocks aliketheirattempts to sootheand

coerce it. They cry out in ignorant despairfor more churches; theypitifullypropose to put down pews t they thinkthere issome charm in

thecha1_geof a priest'sgarment ; they put forthplans forholidayswhe1_

8

the people want employment, though when there was plenty of work andthe people chose to take holidays for themselves, in 1819, Sir Robert,then Mr. Peel, complained of their doing so, and of their licentiousness ;the Tories begin to bustle about draining and drilling--they want man tobe created anew to answer their purposes, and they are as dissatisfied anddiscontented as the Chartists, and much more alarmed at the presentcondition of society. All parties admit the prevalence of great distress,causing great danger _ and the only difference of opinion is as to the me-thod by which it can be cured.

There is nothing, indeed, strictly speaking, very new in this condition,nor are the Corn-laws of yesterday's ena_'tment, except that it is daily grow-ing more frightful, and that the disease which was comparatively local orrdther fitful and partial, has now become universal and permanent.Writing fourteen or fiReen years ago. Mr. Combe said :--" This islandexhibits the spectacle of millions of men toiling to the extremity ofhuman endurance, for a pittance scarcely sufficient to sustain life;weavers labouring for fourteen or sixteen hours a-day for eight-pence_ andfrequently unable to procure work even on these terms ; other artisans,exhausted almost to death by laborious drudgery _ master-traders andmanufacturers anxiously labouring for wealth, now gay in the fond hopethat all their expectations will be realized, then sunk in despair by theploughshare of ruin having passed over them ; landholders and tenantsnow reaping unmeasured returns from their properties, then pining inpenury amidst an overflow of every species of produce. This much moreresembles punishment for tranr,gression, than reward for obedience to theDivine laws.

" If every man in Britain will turn his attention inwards_ and reckonthe pangs of disappointment which he has felt at the subversion of hisown most darling schemes by unexpected turns of public events, or thedeep inroads on his happiness which such misfortunes, overtaking hisdearest relations and friends, have occusioned to him ; the numberlesslittle enjoyments in domestic life, which he is forced to deny himself, inconsequence of the taxation with which they are loaded ; the obstructionsto the fair exercise of his industry and talents, presented by stamps,lieences_ excise laws, custom-house duties et hoc gent,a omrw ; he will dis-cover the extent of responsibility attached by the Creator to nationaltransgressions. Men have hitherto expected the punishment of theiroffences in the thunderbolt or the yawning earthquake, and have believed,that because the sea did not swallow them up, or the mountains fall uponthem and crush them to atoms, heaven has taken no cognizance of theirsins ; while, in point of fact, an omnipotent, an all-just, and an all-wiseGon, had arranged, before they erred, an ample retribution in the veryconsequences of their transgressions. When men shall be instructed inthe laws of creation, they will discriminate more accurately than hereto-fore between _u_tura/and factitioum evils, and become less tolerant of thel_tter."

The condition then described by Mr. Combe still continues, but all itsfeaturaLare terribly aggravated. Our evils, at the same time, are allfactitious. Our industrious people are richer in material knowledge andmechanical skill than any under the sun. The bowels of the earth andthe depths of the sea, freely yield their treasures to the toil of our fear-less miners, of our hardy courageous fishermen. To the labour of ourhusbandmen, the earth never denies s suitable, and very often it grants a

9

rich,sward. In skilland industry lie all the sources of wealth ; andwiththese,Nature has bounteously endowed our people,while she hasnot exposed them to any greatcalamities.To thc energy and courage of our forefathersmanfully resistingthe

pECt'LIAIt OPPRK_MONb Or' THEIR RULERS and THKIR 'l'lMh_'_ _e are

indebted for a tolerable degree of political security. Ottr Government,thanks to their exertions, is not brutally tyramfical. Except in rarecase_,, and except by the regular process of law, men are not tornfrom thcir wives and tamilies and condemned to waste their lives in dun-

geons tilt vigorous manhood drivels into helpless idiocy. Our personal Ires-dora, our treedom or' locomotion, is almost pcrt_ct. Conscwncc is notmuch tyrannized over--the l'tess and pubhc opinion are tolerably trec.l'ubhc affairs are quietly and smoothly administered, and ours is what iscalled a well-ordered state. Nevertheless some great and vital dlseast-

preys on its heart, wastes its frame, sucks its blood, and every now ;rodthen convulses it with mortal agony.

Do not suppose, a_ some writers assert, that our imperfect trccdom,with the partial relaxation of restrictions on trade, made within a fewyears, arc the causes of our social misery. Our present condition is_carcely worse than the habitual condition of Italy, Spain, and France, inwhich trade, locomotion, and conscience, are much more restricted thanwith us. They have been for many years continually a prey to evilsfrom which our commerce, as long as it was suffered to expand, protectedus. But our present evil_h arising in conjunction with comparative free-dora, make some superficial though well-meaning persons conclude thatthe liberty with which the Almighty endows our race, and which tyrantswould fain destroy, deserves to be destroyed as the parent of licentious-heM. Such men worship freedom with onl_r half a heart, and conspirewith her opponents, first to calumniate her, and then to stifle her todeath.

Gentlemen, we yet want one species of freedom_we have achievedpersonal freedom_we have nearly conquered freedom of conscience ;the pre_ is almost tree, but we have yet to conquer freedom for industry.The want of that is a violation of the commands of nature and of thefirst duties of government, as I am about briefly to show, sufficient toaccount for all the miseries of our social condition.

[ need not enter into any elaborate arguments referring to the greatdifferences of soil and climate, and the impossibility of producing in eachcounty many commodities which are not merely useful but almost indis-pensable in all, to show you the advantages of foreign trade ; or that itwas a part of the order of the universe. Cowper has said--

God working ever on a social plan,By various ties attaches man to man :He made at first, though free and unconfined,One man the common fiather of the kind ;That every tribethough placed as he sees best,Where seasor desertspartthem from the rest,Differinginmmmers, language_or in face,Might feelthemselvesalliedto allthe race.

And he adds,-

The band of commerce wag deeiguedTo associateallthe branches of mankind ;

l0

And if a boundless plenty be the robe,Trade is the golden girdle of the globe.Wise to promote whatever end he mea_s,God opens fruitful nature's various scene_ ;Each climate needs what other climes l,roduce,And offers something to the general use ;No land but listens to the common call,And in return receives supply from all.This genial intercourse and mutual aid,Cheers what were else an universal shade ;Calls Nature from her ivy-mantled den,And softens human rock-work into men.

England has surpamed other nations by the extent of her traffic andthe rich variety of her manufacturing industry and ingenuity, to whichshe owes her greatness ; and it would be at once di_racefuI to us not tobe deeply and intimately convinced of the value of trade, and almostimpious to doubt whether such extensive individual happiness andnational greatnem, as have grown up from it amongst us, be consistentwith the Divine government of the world. Until lately, when the land-owners have cast about to find scapegoats for their own iniquity, an ad-miration of trade glowed in every mind ; and it was su_eient to mentionthe word to procure for it, at corporation dinners and public meetings ofthose who now pass it by in silence, an almost idolatrous worship,

As yet no man hag ventured to impugn freedom of trade between the _,inhabitants of this our common country. Legislators, in fact. Now con- ,_tent themsel_'es with heaping restrictions on the interchmlge which is _cgrried prohibiting thatwhich would be carriedon, between theon_ or

subjects of different governments ; and they favour, in all countries, per- _feet freedom of trade between all their own subjects. But freedom oftrade between individuals living under different governments, though fools _:or presumptuous madmen cramp and prohibit it, is as much a part of thesystem of natureas tradebetween the subjectsof the same government,which statesmen at length universally admit cannot be too unrestricted.

Look at the different trades which are connected one with another. It [is admitted, that the labouring cotton spinner should be perfectly free t_,buy hisbread,his cheese,and his grocerieswhen and where he pleases;and because some masters have wished to infringeon thisright,the legis-laturehas made stringentlaws againstthe trucksystem. No man deniesto the baker and the grocerthe rightto go to the cheapestmarke L withinour politicalsociety,lottheirflourand theirsugar; and, indeed,they arestigmatizedasimprudent trademnen ifthey do not take that course. Noman now venturesto say,thatthe working spinnerought not to be freetochoosy his master,and carryhis labour to the best market within her

Majesty'sdominions. In likemanner, every master spinnerisquitefreeto sellhistwistand buy hiscotton,withinthe realm of England, when helikesand where he tikes. If there were not this perfectlyfree tradebetween allthese severalpartie_ there would be dimatisfaction,discon-tent_and collisiom Time and talentwould be wasted in agitationandcontests,which are now devoted to peaceful and honestindustry; butdirectlythismanufacturer, on whose successfuloperationsdepends hispower to gi_e wages to the spinner, and the spinner's power to buy of thebaker and the grocer, wishes to deal with men who, are not subjects,

11

slaves rather, let mc say, ofour state, the law-maker interferes and by re-btrlctiOnn cramps and prevent_ his operations. That which is camaidered avirtue in the retail trader is made a vice in the manufacturer, and he is for-bidden, under penalties, to buy at the cheapest and the best market.

But if' the prosperity of all the others I have quoted depends on thesucces_ of the manut_eturer, is it not clear that his operations andtheir operations are all parts of the same series--connecting links of thesame system of mutual interchange ? and if it be wrong to interfere withhim, when he is buying his c_tton of a Liverpool broker or selling histwist to a Manchester weaver, it must also be equally wrong to interferewj_b him when he wishes to sell his twist to a Russian merchant and buyflour of an American trader. Just consider for a moment, how manyhome trades_ far more than I can enumerate, such as the biscuit baker,the anchor smith, the sail maker, the provision merchant--m_d how muchthe prosperity of each depends on the success of the foreign trader, andyou will be at once convinced, that if it be wholly indefensible to restrictthem in any manner in their operations one with another, it must beequally indefensible to restrict him with whom they are so intimatelyconnected, and on whose success the prosperity of all the rest dependl.In fact, the whole series of home and foreign interchanges are allmutually and reciprocally parts of one and the same natural system, ofwhich the foundations are the peculisritiee and different faculties of indi-vidtmls, and the different soils and climates of different countries. Theyhave no relation to the separation of men into political communities, andthere is as little reason to restrict the trade between Lancashire and NewYork, as to restrict it between Lancashire and London. Man is createdfree to buy and sell with whom, when, and where he likes, and legial&torsare bound to prove such freedom a great public injury, and that they arewiser than nature, beibre they venture in any ease to restrain it.

One of the distinguishing features of our political soeiety_ as contrastedwith the states of the continent, is the almost perfect freedom of tradewhich we enjoy with one another. While in Germany, each of theseveral little states into which tltat country is divided, till the Zoll Vereinwas established six or eight years ago, had its own Custom-house regula-tions preventing all free intercourse between the slaves ot each, while inFrance, Spain, and Italy, no two provinces could freely communicatewith one another, and every town had its own duties and its Custom-house, the whole population of England and Scotland have for a centuryand a half been free to trade with each other. Adding Ireland, the tradewith which was m_de a domestic trade in consequence of the Union,and the colonies of which the trade was chiefly restricted, as againstother countries, E,nglishmen have had more free trade than any otherpeople. They have not been plagued with passports, their locomotionand their internal traffic have been for many years quite free, and theirfreedom has cont_rred great prosperity on their native land.

In like manner, the bulk of the inhabitants of the United States enjoyperfect freedom of trade and locomotion." No two countries have madesuch rapid advances in national wealth and greataem, the fruita of freedomand commerce, as England and the United States. Taxes and debta arethe offapring of wars and political ambition ; we are indebted for theability to bear our enormous burdens to the succeu of our induatry.Those two modern examples suffice to prove, that the original conditionof man--free to buy and sell as he lists--is at all times agreeable to

12

nature _ and they justify, by experience, the assertion that to placea'_'-_raxcTXONSor TaADS and industry is to violate _sa commands.So impressed was Dr. Franklin with this important truth,that he

declared,more than sixty years ago, that a legislaturemaking lawsIbr trade was the greatestfool on earth. " Most of the statutesoracts,edicts,arrests,and placarm of parliAment_princes,and states,forregulating,directing,or restrainingtrade,have been," he also says,'"eitherpoL_/r._bLut_rs or JOBSobtainedby artfulmen forprivateadvan-tagetraderpretenceof publicgood."" In likemanner, Dr. Smith,nearlyaboutthe same period,said,"The statesmanwho shouldattemptto directprivatepeoplein what manner they ought to employ theircapitals,(andevery restrictionon tradeissuch an attempt,)would not only load him-selfwith a most unnecemary attention,but assume an authoritywhich

_afelycould be trusted,not only to no singleperson,but to no cduncilorsenatewhatever,and which would be nowhere so dangerous as in thehands of a man who had Ibllyand presumption enough to fancy himselffitto exerciseit."_" Thus the freedom with which l,atureendows man,the variousdiversitiesof government, el/mate,and of individualcapaci-tieswhich she has created_the consequences of freetradewhere it hasexisted,as amongst the inhabitantsof England and the United _tates_and the voiceofphilesophy,embodiedinthe writingsIhave jusLquoted,allauthorisethe conclusion1 have alreadydrawn. Restrictionson tradeandindustryconstitutethatgeneraland systematicoppositionto the DivineGovernment of the world, or, as others express it,to God s glory,bydoing his appointedwork_the prooi_of which, accordingto Mr. Combe,are manifestedinthe uneasinem_,poverty,and distressof society.These restrictions,gentlemen,are alsoviolationsof tl_efinstprinciple_

of government. Cicero, Locke, llentham, every i_hilosopiterwho ha_investigatedthe subject,has come to the conclusionthat civd governmentisinstitutedfor the protectionof property. On that ground it claims,and on thatground alone,isitworthy of obedience. That isthe founcla-tionofallegiance,which is cast loosewhen go_ernment violatesthe pro-perty of itssubjects." Of all the speciepof property,saysMr. M'Cul-loch,which a man can pom_ the fhcultiesofhismind and the powers ofhisbody are mest particularlyhis own. lle should, therefbre,be per-mitredto enjoy,thatis,use or exertthesepowers at his discretion.Andhence,thisrightis as much in_inged upon when a man is interdictedfi'om engaging in a rartieulax branch of b_sine&#, as when he is deprivedof the property he has produced or accumulated."

According to Mr. M'Culloch, therefore, it is in principle as great aviolation of the right of property to prevent Mr. Cobden importing corn,,as it is to take away the Duke of Buckingham's estate. As the legisla-ture has no property of its own--nothing hut what it leviee as taxes-.-when it gives bounties on some one trade, and restricts another, it notonly limits the exercise of men's faculties, it takes away the property ofsome to confer it on others. All restrictions, therefore, on honest ind,-try', all interdicts to engage in any kind of trade, are violations by thelegislature of that right ot property the legislature is constitutdd to pro-tect. They are violations of its own highest and most sacred duties toperform which alone it exerts, as well as violations of the commands ofnature,

• Essayl. ._ Wealth ot NationA, B.iv. eh.2.

13

This unnatural and unjust system of restrictions on traffic, s not ofmodern origin. It sprung up in times of ignorance and oppression ; ithad its birth in conquest, and began earlier than the 14th century.At least, in the year 1381, when War Tyler, who has been shamefullyaspersed by Hums and other historians--tor he was one of the chosen,and for a time suece_ful leader_ of the Saxon serts in their eflbrts to re-L_nquer freedom and justice, who was too much a man of ability whenothers were beguiled to be deluded by the deceitful promises of theKing and his Barons, and who deserves to be held in honour as a cham-pion of popular rights, which he lost his life to support ;--when WatTyler, in the year 1381, met Richard II. in Smithfield, the first and thechief demand which he made for the people, according to the historian ofthe Norman Conquest, was "the RIGHT of BUYING and $11LLINO OPZNLV

and FRR_LV in the towns and out of the towns." He was not successful,_md he was put to death tbr making this demand. The Norman Baronswere too well organized to permit the emancipation of the Saxon serf_,and from that time, at least, to this there has been s contest betweenthe people struggling for open and free buying and selling, and thelegislative authority intent o_ restricting them. However that mayhave been composed, and"however it may have operated, it has alwaysaimed at restrainil_g buying and selling, and always endeavoured toturn the produce of the people's industry into the pockets of somethvoured elates. Free trade with foreigners is only the extension of thetree buying and selhng our ancestors demanded _ but peddling moneydeaters,_merclmnts, when their wealth enables them to buy an estateendrecommends them to a peerage, and lawyers of whose servility nobilityand land are the reward ; the jumble of men who now inherit, with thepossession of the land, _me of the power acquired by the Norman sword,al_o adopt the opinion and prejudices of the conquerors, and persist intreating traders as _rfs--in resisting free buying and selling, and indestroying trade without consulting either the laws of nature or theinterests of the people.

We have now to apply those everlasting l rineiples to the Corn Law_which impede, restrict, and prevent the cotton manufacturers of Man-chester, the cutlers of Sheffield. the woollen-cloth maker of Leeds, fromt?eely exchanging the produce of their industry tbr the wheat of Polandand the flour of the United States. "l hey prohibit all the trade, and noman can tell to what extent it might run between those manufacturers,and some men living under other i_overnments. They are a grievousrestriction on the honest industry of all the manufacturers, all the mer-chant.-, and all the shipowners, engaged in foreign trade. They not onlyrestrict that trade, they annihilate a great portion of it ; and annihilating_t, put an end to the thousand useful and profitable occupations, far morethan I can enumerate, connected with it. They are direct violations ofthe liberty which is every man's natural right.

They take away, in the enhanced price of bread, the property ofevery consumer of bread. In the first instance, they give it to thefarmer, who however is only the tax-gatherer for another, and he hands itover, together with his share of the tax, for he pays it_to the owners of rent.I do not say how much the law takes away from the consumers to trans-

fer to the landlords, for that is a varying and unascertainable quantity. Itis enough tbr me that it takes something _ and on a question of principle,I give up my right if I only object to a wrong on account of its amount.

14

A robbery is not to be excused, heeause it has been exercised on a beggar,and the booty h_ been only a penny. Our very rich law-makers mayhave ao sympathies except with those who lose miUions or provincea_ butto take a mite indirectly by law from a widow, or half a potatoe from ahand-loom weaver, is as great a crime as to confiscate, by law, Lord Ash-button's dividends or to seize his estate. The Corn Laws are neithermore nor leas than a great robbery solemnly decreed by the owners ofrent, on all other ela._e_ in which, like all other robberies, a vast dealmore property is wasted and destroyed than is transferred and enjoyed.The people are impoverished and starved, but the landlords are notenriched. The system is unmitigated malevolence.

I need not refer to any authorities to prove that such legislation,depriving the labourer of his bread, is contrary to the laws of God. If HRhad inflicted on men the penalties of hunger and idleneas--if Hg hadtantalised them with the knowledge that Hz had placed abundance offbod in another land_if, in addition, Hz had given them the power toobtain it ; and had wooed them, as it were, to go for it by making thenec_ry exercise of skill and industry no inconsiderable pleasure--if Hzhad enabled them to produce quantities of clothing and other usefulthings which the owners of the food wanted as much as the owners ofthe clothing want food--if H_ had made the mutual exchange a mutualbenefit, all of which Hz has done ; and if Hz had, at thesame time, deniedour people .the right to make the exchange, threatening them with ever-lasting punishment if they di_beyed _ what better would the GaitCaLtroa be in our estimation, than the landowing Parliament of Eng-land ? Then, instead of being, on account of infinite benevolence, theobject of unbounded reverence, and on account of unfathomable wisdom,the object of worship impossible to be too profound, He would be no moreworthy of honour than our numerous and hardy political quacks who liveon smiling, and remorseless in the midst of the mighty ruin they havecaused. If such restrictions as the Corn Laws be not opposed to thelaws of God--then is the Almighty, speaking it with all reverence, uojaster than the landed aristocracy. But these laws are condemned by allthe principles which the human heart venerates, and holds to be sacredand divine.

You will naturally suppose that a law which sets at defiance all princi-pies of justice and of reason, had some excuse in a great and overwhelm-ing state nece_ity--that it was _ to save the country from invasic,nor the state from rebellion_that like the Septennial Act, which had for itsexcuse the apprehension that a Jacobite Parliament might betray theliberties of the nation, it was founded ou some conviction that nothingelse could save the people from a tyranny both civil and religious ; that asolemn investigation preceded the enactment, and that the bulk of thepeo?le repined not at it, but rather welcomed it as a safeguard against agreater danger, as a man submits to the amputation of limb to save hislife. Now, let me not on my own authority, but on the authority of thePrime Minister of the day, place the facts before you.

I will read to you a passage of a speech delivered by the Earl ofLiverpool in the House of Lords on May 26th, 1820. This nobleman,you will recollect, was Prime Mmister,'in 1815, when the worst Corn Lawwas then passed ; he, in fact, passed it, and of that law he thus spoke onthe day I have mentioned.

" I was one of thoso, _' said the Earl of Liverpool, "who, in the year

15

11t15, ad_oc_ded the Corn Bill. In common with all tile supporters otthat measure, I believed that it was expedien: to grant an ADDITJON,_Lprotection (which means additional price) to the agriculturist. 1 thoughtthat after the peculiar situation of this country during a war of twentyyears enjoying a monopoly in some branches ot trade, although excludedfrom others ; after the unlimited extent to which speculation in ags'icsdturehad been for many years carried---(meaning the greedy purchasing of badland by landowners at high prices)--and consider;ng the low coml,arati_e

price of agricultural produce in most of the countries of Europe ; thelanded property of the country would be subjected to ver$/ con,.iderable IN-CO._VaNIg_CE and distress, if some turther legislative provision were notafforded to it. I thought the Corn Bill was advisable, with a view ofpreventing THAT CONVULSIONIN LAND]£D PROPERTYwhich a change fromsuch a war to such a peace might otherwise produce---(amomentary andtemporary purpose) ;--on that ground, I supported the Corn Bill. Duringthe discussion of that question, I recollect that several I.ERSONS wereDESIROUS OF INSTITUTING A LONG PR]_YIOU8 INQ, UIRY_ (it was not, however,made,) and that others still more erroneously wished to wait for two or threeyears to see how things would turn out (no delay, however, was granted)before they meddled with the subject. At that time, 1 told those whomaintained the latter opinion, that it appeared to me to be a mo_t mis-taken one. What I recommended was--to pass the Corn Bill (and,thusto give a further, and, under the circumstances, I thought a proper prbtec-tion to agriculture) _ but I delivered it as my opinion, that if it was notpassed THEN IT OUGHT NOT TO BE PA_Si.;D AT ALL--aI_d upon this ground,which, whether it be wise or not, it is at least intelligible--that ! couldconceive a case in which it might be expedient to give a further protectionto the agriculturist ; but thut I was persuaded that the worst coursewhich it was possible for the legislature to adopt, was to hang the ques-tion up in doubt and uncertainty, that TH_ eoNsaqVENCS oF NO_ L_m-LATING AT ALL WOULD BE_ THAT RENT.'_ WOULD FALL_THAT A COMPRO"

MISE WOULD TAKE PLAC]g BETWEEN THE OWNER8 AND OCCUPIEa8 OF L£ND_

--that the landlord and tenant would _aKE A NEW nASeAIN--and that ifafter all the distress incident to such changes, (that is, to rent falling andmaking new bargains,) had passed sway, a new Corn Bill should be agreedto, IT WOULD Hg MOST UNEQUAL AND UNJUbT IN ITS OPKKATION. ] con-

tended, that Parliament owed it to the interests of aJi_to the interests ofthe landlord, to the interests of the tenant,--to the interests of the wholecommunity--whether it decided to legislate on the subject or nots at leastto decide ;--to adopt a steady course, to attend to all the circumstancesof that eventful period, and then to adhere with undeviating determina-tion to whatever line of conduct its sense of public duty might prescribe.Such would have been my feeling had the Corn Bill been lost. In thatcase, I would never again have promoted it. Much more is it my feelingunder existing circumstances, the Corn Bill having been adopted.Whatever may be the distress under which agriculture laboun_ I am con-vinced that there are no such certain means of aggravating that distress asperpetually to tamper with it by the adoption of new measures and newlaws. Whatever may be the system adopted, LZT rr ss ADHm_D TO.Let the farmer and the tenant s let the buyer and the seller, know that itwill be adhered to, and they will soon come to some arrangement fortheir mutual advantage."

Thus then we have it distinctly proved that this law, which has suchwide-spread influence on the community, which vitiates our currency--

16

which cuts up trade by the roots--which has generated many hostiletarifl_which has severed the bond_ of commercial amity with othernations---which has made England, by her convulsive demands tbr grainin other market_ a genentl nuisance, am| which has through twenty-sevenyears contributed to statrve her people, wits passed to ward off a meretemporary exigency from the landed interest. Tile Minister was atnddthat the rent-owners might be inconvenienced, that slueculations in agricul-ture would fail. some noble Dukes and lion. 5I_mber_ of Parliamenthaving purchased at a high price great quantities of bad land, that if theydid not make haste and pa_ this law, KSYTS WOULV FALL, compromi_would be entered into, NEW n._auAz._s would be made, and owners of rentwould find, with the IJriec of wheat, their N,_lWt.,L level in secicty. Topreve_lt that, to arrest the course of nature, from such motive_, and onsuch grounds, the owner_ of rent_ caring nothing for _oclety, in simile ofrca._on alld experience, and in defi_mee of the rcclamauons of almost allthe town population, hastened to ibree on the people, at the point of thebayonet, an abominable law, which is tile crowning example in our times oflegislative injustice.

•' Wretches hang," it is said_ with a bitter sneer--" wretches hangthat jurymen may dine ;" but what a trifle is hanging wretches thatjurymen may dine, compared to starving a large portion of the nation,that landlords may not enter into a compromise with their tenants,_md that prices may not thl] to their _ATV_aL level. Lord Liver-pool was reputed to be an honest, an amiable, and a considerateMinister ; and yet he utterly overlooked and disregarded the fluctuationsthis law would cause ill price, the tntde it would annihilate, the foreignhostility it would engender, the bankruptcies it would produce, thepoverty which was certain to follow in its train, the dearth it decreed,_tnd the numerous painful deaths by s_arvation it would inflict. Thoughhe recognized the injttstico of its principles, regardless of its consequences,he pa_ed it to save the landlords from the trouble of altering their leases.The description of a _ingle lover ready to die rather than his mistre_should suffer the least anuoyvalce_

" God forbid my life should be weighed against ' her least convenience"_

has been considered one of the _ exaggerations of poetry ; but thisand every other poetic fiction f_lt far before the reality of a great natiol_doomed for twenty-seven years to fhe miseries I have alluded to, arisingfrom a want of food, in order to save a few rent-owners from arranginghonestly and honourably with their creditors. A more monstrous thingis not to be found in the whole history of human folly, than thus toinjure millions through a series of years for the sake of keeping up the rent-rolls of a few landlords, and retaining in their hands the estates they hadmortgaged.

Lord Liverpool's successors, I regret to my, have been neither wisernor more considerate than Lord Liverpool. The most appalling picture_of distress |lave been laid before the legis]ature, and both Whigs and['ories have beheld them unmoved. It has been proved in Parliament,

that hundreds and even thousands of industrious people are starving ingarrets and cellars on le_ than 9d. a day each, surrounded with all that i_inimical to health, comfort, and morality _ it has been proved, that somehave invented and many have applied a new art of sustaining life bymoistening the mouth with water and placing the body in a recumbentposture ; it has been proved, that many of them were reduced to that state

17

which in olden times was inflicted as a punishment on a mighty monarch_br his impiety, and were obliged, like Nebuchadnezzar. to feed on the_rccn nettles they could gather from the fields and the hedges ; and that_ome of them were reduced to u condition to which even the Israelitesnever condemned their enemies, and were obliged, like the most loath-,_omcreptiles, to dig up and iced on the carrion that had been buried toa_oid contagion ; but all these pictures of terrible, and I believe--at leastin Europe--almost unheard-of woe have made no more impremion onLord Liverpool's successors, than their non-existence in his time made onhint. Nothing has been thought of or regarded by them but rent andthe convenience of the rent-owners--and the most frightful miseries ofthe great multitude have been considered as the merest trifle comparedt_,the probability--and even the possil_ility--that were the starvation lawstotally repealed--some tbw gentlemen's incomes_ including the Bishops

and the rest of the Clergy. might fi,ll fifteen or twenty _er cent. Whe-ther the conduct of our statesmen has been caused y ignorance ornmliglfity, the public effects have been the same, and for the mosttrifling and even doubtful advantages to a few rent-owners, the happinemof the millions has been unscrupulously sacrificed.

Latterly, hoth Whigs and Tortes have begun to pay something like._ttention to the question ; but the reason for the alteration in their con-duct is by no means creditable to them, nor does it invite our confidence.They did not take it up till the tax-bearing power of the people began todiminish. When the revenue fell off, and when rents began to comedown, then they began to find out that possibly it might not be advan-tageous to the Treasury and to the Aristocracy to ruin trade and starvethe people. Lord Liverpool. I repeat, was an honest and amiable man,,Lnda favourable sample of the whole lot of statesmen ; and his earelemand ignorant dooming of the nation, without inquiry, to all the horrorsahich have resulted from his Corn Law, however reprehensible anddi.,gusting,was not halfsohad asthe conductof his successors,whobasecontinuedthelawsinoppositiontothe prayersofthe people,aRertheirruinouseffectshad been made palpable.His conduct,too,wasalmostiullnitelypraiseworthycomparedtotheconductofthatstatesmanatthehead of the monopolists,who broke up the lateadministration,andconsignedthepeopletoa longerperiodofjsuffering,inordertopre-_cnta triflingimprovementin theseatrociouslaws. Now that therevenueisfallingrapidly,now thatrentiscomingand must come down,thequestionwillbe againtakenup with some view to considerallitsl_arings; bet ifthe revenue,and ifrenthad flourished,the people,Il_elwarrantedin asserting,might have perisheduncaredfor by thelegislature,and mighthave been extinguishedby the direstmimeryandthemostpainfuldeaths.Itis,indeed,said,thatthesewho passedtheCorn Laws,alarmedatthe

increaseofa town population,deliberatelylimitedthesupplyoffood,thattheymight,ia directcontraventionboth of the revealedand dis-coveredlawsofGod, preventthemultiplicationofthepeople.Knowingnot that population carries with it its own laws, extending civilization andimproving morality as it increases---they were afraid of God's creatures,and they secretly attempted to starve them down to a manageable num-ber. We must be slow to believe that such diabolical intentions wereever entertained by those who ask and obtain the confidence of the

18

people in order to protect them. :No such motive was avowed in 1815 ;but when we recollect their regardle_ness of the byes of the people, suchan intention is not very fl)reign to their habit_. When we now find, too,that one organ of the landlords s_ys the country could dispense with itsmanufactures _ and annther implies that it would be a benefit were halfthe metropolis and other towns razed, and when we find that all thewriters of the aristocracy and IDLE elP._ses are continually pouring forthvehement abuse of our industrious, ingenious, and starving people, weare forced, however reluctantly, to admit that the Corn Laws are retainedbecause some of the aristocracy hate and dread the free and independentpopulation of the towns.

This great system of cruel injustice is only defeno-d by shallow andscarcely plsasible so_,histry. _len rack their imaginations to find reasonswhy doing right in legislation must be doiuz evil. Never yet was a grosswrong committed by a tyrant, but fools and flatterers invented l_retextsfor praising it. If it were necessary to refi_te such sophistry, it has beenamply done. In the press, I have in common with other persons conti-nually examined, and helped daily to expose, though with some shame,the flimsy jnstification which is put forth of legislative plunder andstarvation. There is no reason, except an unworthy deference to thosewho make laws--as if they were gods rather than weak and foolish menlike ourselves---why we should not spurn with indignation the shallowdefence of such crimes, as we spurn with indignation all apologiesfor the similarly detestable, though in their consequences infinitely lessimportant crimes of a Good or G.reenacre. It is full of danger to givea sanction to criminality in the masquerade of solemn enactments deli-berately disguised by such words as protection and independence, to im-pose on the public understanding. The many hideous crimes we deplorein individuals are made feasible and eneoura_red by the legislative crimeswhich the public are thus betrayed into permitting and applauding.

I need not dwell on the etfeets of these lairs, they are already burntinto the heaxt by that sad and sorrowful condition of our intelligent andpowerful community which I have brought before you. Here, to accountfor it, we have a great system of legislation founded on barefaced injustice,the palpable effects of which me wholesale robbery and lingering starva-tion. I may, however, remark, that almost all the moral and physicalphenomena of society may be traced to the relation between populationand food ; when abundance prevails, men are affectionate and kindly, andprone to love every thing around them. A satiated tiger may be playedwith as securely as a lady's cat ; but woe to the individual who comeswithin his spring when he is ravenous. Serious and violent crimes aregenerally committed by individuals who belong to the classes habitually aprey to destitution. There is no modern exar, lple of a well-fed Aldermenor a well-fed Bishop committing a murder. Men can only be kindlyaffectionate, and moral when they are reasonably well fed.

The want or deficiency of food is obviously at the bottom of all thedistress, miNry, discontent, aad crime, which are the real curses of society.When food is deficient for any length of time, there must of nece_ty be adeficiency of clothing, becauae men will part with everything to getfood. There must, for the same reason, be a deficiency of furniture, awant of all kinds of conveniences and luxuries, and an absence of allcomfort from the dwellings of the poor. Hence our population are now

19

wretchedly clothed and lcdged_as is set forth by the doleful, and toour rulers disgrace&l, report of the Commissioners for inquiry into thesanatory condition of the people.

Their uncleanly persons, their squalid habitations, their neglect ofdecencymspreading by example their own vices, and by contagion thediseases to which they are a prey, tbrough society, are all the conse-quences of a scarcity of food. S_arving men cannot cultivate the socialaffections, the fine arts, or attend to science. All altempts, therefore, toimprove the morality and tbe minds of the millions, even by LordWharnclifle's singing classes, while there is a deficiency of food in theland, must all be hopeless and vain.

"In the moral system, it is a part of the wise arrangements of P.ovi-dence, that no member shall suffer alone--that, if the lower classes areinvolved in wretchedne_ and beggary, the more elevated shall not enjoytheir prosperity unimpaired. That constitution of society is radicallyunsound, of which the _ferior order is vicious and miserable _ a wretchedand degraded populace is a rent in the foundation, or (if we may beallowed to change the figure) a taint of rottenneR at the root of society,which will infallibly wither and decay its remotest--I will add, also, itsloftiest--branches be they ever so high. Alarming as the present aspectof affairs unquestionably is, the most appalling feature of the times isthe prevailing discontent of the lower orders--discontent arising, not somuch from the infusion of speculative principles, as from the impressionof actual distress. Alleviata their distress,_convince them at least ofyour solicitude to do it,--and you extirpate the seeds of distinction farmore effectually than by all the arts of intimidation _ but, if an insensi-bility to their sufferings in the higher orders goads them to despair,nourishes an appetite for change, and prepares them to lend themselves tothe sophistry of artful demagogues and unprincipled empiries, what willhe the consequence, but a divided and distracted empire, where, insteadof uniting to consolidate the sources of national prosperity, the nece_ityof employing one part of the nation in the coercion or punishment of theother dissipates its efforcs, and cripples its energy ? _ e have the highestauthority for asserting, that 'a kingdom divided against itself cannotstand _' and surely no schism in the body politic can be more fatal thanthat which alienates the hands from the head--the physical strength ofsociety from it.s presiding intellect.",

Hunger and anger are closely allied in meaning and derivation t andthere is no crime to which the former may not prompt ; even polishedgentle womeh, when exposed to famine, have shared t_he cannibal mealwhich their companions have begun by murder, and similar effect is pro-duced by the hunger to which the law dooms the l_e_ple. They aremade savage by semi-starvation ; daily do we hear of crimes at whichmen put up their hands, call them unenglish, and wonder who could dothem. Hungry men, is the answer ; or if not men_ctually hungry_men ofrobust nature, in whom the prevalent emotions ofthe distre_ed clam becomeintense and active---for there is a kind of fashion in human sympathies aswell as in drew, and kindled emotions spread through all--men whoeeminds are modelled by the general savagene_ caused by hunger, are thegreat criminals of society. To continue the community exposed to a_'ant of food, is to doom it by law to crime and barbarianism.

• Robert Rail.

20

Our Corn Laws, thwarting the exertions of all the industrious classesand of all the inventions of ingenuity, which have as their main and ulti-mate object to procure first plenty of food, and then only convenienciesand luxuries,--thwarting all the strivings of the human race at all times,for even the object of plunderers is first to get plenty of food,--thwarting,therefore, the whole course of man's best and noblest aspirations--forgenius must be fed--the Corn Laws were passed a_d are maintained, de-priving industry, exertion, and ingenuity of the reward which Providencebestows on them ; the Corn Laws were passed to keep down anti cut shortthe supply of food ; and when we find that the people w.'tnt food, andwanting food, want clothing, want cleanliness, want comfortable habita-tions, want decency, want kindliness, and want morality, why should weseek beyond the_ laws for the cause of our immense and our intolerablewoes? The people want tbod because the paternal legislature has or-dained a dearth ! They want employment because their protectors haveplaced fetters on their industry. I cannot foresee the course of events.[ put my trust in human nature, not in landlords' nature, and I say, letus break these fetters,_let us put an end to the law ordained famine,_let us give the people fair play, and allow them to get as much food aspossible by their own honest labour, and under the guidance of IIim whois ia " the void waste as in the city full," they will soon outgrow, or dih-gently remedy, all other social disorders.

There is hope, gentlemen. Inquiries are making, and indications aregiven, that if the people will only reverence the ministers and the aristo-cracy, and will continue to trust and worship them, in spite of experience,somethin_ will be done. Be ye not deceived, however, by such lures.Never did the multitude get any legislative improvement from the rulingtbw, as Mr. Bentham has 8aid, but by making them uneasy. If Sir RobertPeel, a deserter from every principle he has expounded, be inclined, nowthat he seen the revenue going rapidly to decay, to put down the laws hebuilt up a part.y and took office to support_infiicting eighteen months'unnecessary misery on the people,_if he be now inclined to betray histrusting corn-rogues, we will not oppose him, though we must at the sametime give him, and all other men in his situation, distinctly to understandthat we will put up with no modiflcatiou of the sliding-scale,_that wewill not tolerate a fixed duty, nor a duty to slide away half a-dozen yearshenee,--that we never wilt sanction halfa felony, nor be contented with apromise hereafter to take the fetters off our industry, and then allow us toeat our own bread. We are sure of our tbundatioas, we know that ourdemands are built on eternal justice, and whoever, as the representative ofthe inn dlords, may have the disgraceful task of putt ing into a legislative formthe acknowledgment of their iniquity or their ignorance--of giving whatMr. Burke called" a technical dress" to a free trade in food--we never willbe contested as long as a remnant of these laws, the latest offset of feudaltyranny, and the latest proof of the slavery of industry tn idleness, shallremain on the statute-book. We repudiate them entirely and totally,both for themselves and the system of which they are the sign and a part,Imth because they are a sin and an oppression, an impious opposition tonature, and an insult to every free man. Through the whole of this cen-tury, under the influence of public opinion, warranted by philosophy andexperience, with the exception of these laws, the course of our commercialpolicy has bees uniformly favourable to the removal of restrictions on in-dustry. They arc as contrary, therefore, to the progress of civilization a8

21

to all moral principleh and having been some of the last bad laws enactedought to be amongst the first to be immediately, wholly, and for ever de-stroyed.

We know, from dire experience, the character of these laws--we knowthe deep distress they have caused--we know that our legislators have,year after year. turned a deaf car to our petitions and our prayers, andknoWing these things, it now behoves us to consider seriously what we haveto do. Heaven helps them who help themselves, and to deserve its favourwe must put our own shoulders to the wheel. As a last resource, we arerequired, by a united and firm declaration, to inform rent-owners andlaw-makers, explicitly and without any disguise, that we are tho-roughly aware of the motives and the disastrous effects of _heir legis-lation, and we most solemnly warn them, being ourselves deeply in-terested in the preservation of the public peace, that they must not andcannot count on the continued respect and obedience of the people-- be-cause that is contrary to human nature--if they persist in their unrighteouscourse. The time has come when we must clearly tell the law-makersthat their decrees cannot convert wrong into right _ and that for us toobey them on this point would be to set at defiance the far higher autho-rity by obeying which we live and move and have our being.

In these critical and alarming circumstances the Anti-Corn Law Leagueproposes a plan of association for your adoption, and asks for your support.That League is no knot of theorists, proposing some Frenchified-poliee asthe means of promoting security, or borrowing from that and other de-spotic lands a centralized system of providing for the people, of which has.tiles and the shortest possible allowance of food are the outworks ; nor doesit propose some Prussian scheme of drilling mankind into order, as if theywere made only for royal discipline or some nice adjustment of punish-ment to human endurance, by which com_try gentlemen, by summaryconviction, may torture some *hirty or forty thousand persons per yearwithout actually putting them to death, though that sometimes occurs ;_the League proposes no great untried and coercive scheme of making menbetter than God ]_as made them ; it is no squad of heated enthusiasts ; itpretends to no occult means of making men happy ; it is no band of Mor-monites, headed by a cunni._g prophet ; nor does it, hke many of tho_ewho revile it, seek wealth and dominion here by threats of punishmentelsewhere. The League is a union of practical manufacturers and mer-chants, who seek only freedom for buying and selling, and who have beendriven by the direful effects of the Corn Laws from their peaceful indus-trious occupations into a great scheme of political agitation. They feelthe pinching shoe. They see the multitude perishing around them with-out the power to help or save them. Every day they are practically con-vioced that if they were at liberty to buy t_d of all kinds when they likeand where they like. they could sell cutlery, cottons, woollens, and earth-enware ; they could employ the thousands of unemployed hands aroundthem at good wages_ and relieve some of the misery which weighs heavilyon every part of the community. It is, at the same time, true that theywould thereby benefit themselves. They neither conceal nor deny this.They make it the grolmd of their appeal to the nation--justifying in thestrongest manner the course they adopt, by proving that it would benefitthe public and would benefit themselves. Plain practical men, feeling agreat grievance, they ask, showing good cause for that demand, all theirfellow-subjects to aid them in procuring redress. They do not go to the

"2"2

legislature to demand cheapness or even abundance, though both, they be-lieve, will be the consequence of the repeal. They _k no favour, theybarely demand justice, they require only that the landlord_' yoke bebroken, and that the people be allowed to feed themselves, and they trustthat abundance and cheapness would then gladden the land, giving pro-sperity to all classes at home and ensuring peace abroad.

Some persons reproach the League with violence and impracticability,for demanding that the Corn Laws be immediately and totally repealed.If I made any charge against the League, it would be that it does not gofar and fast enough, and does not carry out the principles it advocates totheir proper conclusions, aud therefJre, perhaps, it has not received all thesupport it deserves, ltaving demonstrated that the legislature has com-mitted the enormous crime of violating the property of the people, andstarving some of them out of existence, what more natural than to demandthat the great criminal should expiate its enormousguilt by forfeiting its ownsocial existence ? The crimes committed against the community byCharles I. were innocence itself compared to the crime of stopping thesupply of food. But the League, far from seeking to destroy the legisla-lature, or even to remodel it on any Chartist principle, humbly and respect-fully solicits it merely to remove its bowstring from the neck of the nationalindustry. It asks, indeed, that this should be done immediately, it asksthat it should be done entirely, and that no little end of the lash may be

let% wound round, impeding the flow of blood, if it be not tight enough tostrangle. Surely there is no intemperance in humbly and modestly,yet determinedly, requesting a plunderer to take at once his hand out ofyour pocket and his pistol from your throat. The Corn Laws constitutethe coping-stone of a huge system of injustice, all of which must be re-moved, aud the League shows its moderation and its wisdom by beginningto remove that which binds the whole together, so as to enable us here-

after gr,_lually and safely to take it entirely down.Do not be frightened by the assertion that our whole system is so artifi-

cial and complicated that we cannot safely alter it. Those who defendit by such arguments imply that wrong must be eternal. We are bound,according to them, to continue for ever the vicious and unholy systemwhich ignorant and selfish men have imposed on us. " The fact," saysMr. Culloeh, a gentleman not favourable to our agitation, " of a departurehaving been made on one or more occasions from the sound principles ofthe freedom of industry can never be alleged as a sufficient reason for ob-stinately persevering in a line of policy which has been ascertained to bemost inimical to the public interests, or for refusing to embrace the earliestopportunity of reverting to a better system. To act on such a principlewould be to perpetuate the worst errors and absurdities, and would be aproceeding utterly inconsistent with all the ENns .tNn Ot_CTS OF GOVErt,_-XZNT." Let us not, then, be daunted or checked by any such idle assor-tious that to put an end to scandalous wrong will be fatal to the publicprosperity. That would be to deny the moral government of the world,to lose all faith in Providence, and submissivelj, to worship the demon ofeviL

Gentlemen, the cause of the League is the cause of truth and justice--the cause of trade and honest industry. If you live by the sweat of yourbrow or the toil of your minds, it is your cause. It is the cause of everyindustrious man, and every man who wishes for freedom. Hasten, there-

fore, to secure its success. By your power is monopoly maintained. In

o3

Britain public opinion gives the law to Parliament, and yours will be, a8 itnow is, the punishment ; for the people are the victims of bad laws, andyours will henceforth be the blame, should the Corn Laws be continued.

I am rot sure that to repeal them will or can nowsave the nation fromdecay ; but I am sure that as long as they last it cannot flourish. Nordo I assert that our task will be done when they are abolished. There areother laves to be amended or abolished, but our first object--which isindeed the main object of all human exertions--must be to get plenty offood. Our only chance of restoring our beloved country to prosperity, ofhealing those bitter dissensions which spread far and wide through theland, of giving adequate wages to the working classes, security to themiddle and upper classes, and confidence to all, is to repeal at once andforever these desolating laws.

The time will come, I believe it is not far off, when reason, truth, andjustice will prevail, and when even the landlords will hel l) us to aholishthese laws. Then there will be no man living who will not be ashamed,Bhouldthis great and holy cause have been made to triumph without hiscordial asaistance. None of you, I trust, will place yourselves in sohumiliating a position ; you will all, on the contrary, each in his sphere,and each according to his gilts and means, exert yourselves to rescue ourcountry, and even human nature, from this horrible legislation. I takemy leave of you, by earnestly praying that our united efforts may be ibl-lowedby free and complete success.

LON DON :

PKINTID BY G. J. PALMXR v SAVOY STRKW/'_ 8TIAND.